Royal Couple Presented with Weird Aphrodisiac

by Rayne Millaray

No word on whether William and Kate knew what to do with a Coco de Mer. Do you?

Have you heard of the Coco de Mer? It's also known as the coconut of the sea, and it's said to look like a lady's bottom. Apparently, it starts out so heavy and dense that the Coco de Mer sinks to the bottom of the ocean if it falls in. Eventually, as it begins to decay, it sheds its outer skin and floats to the surface thanks to the gases that form inside. And that's how the nut was discovered.

Sailors discovered the nuts and told stories of nuts that “fell upwards.” That is, they claimed the nuts grew on trees at the bottom of the ocean, and when they broke loose, they rose to the surface rather than falling to the ocean floor. Then the real trees were discovered. When they found that male trees had phallic appendages, they began talking about tree sex in the dead of night.

The ripe fruit of the tree is used as an aphrodisiac. There's also talk of it being the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. And did we mention it is known, endearingly, as the Love Nut?